Man or a Muppet?
by Halley the Comet
Summary: Why doesn't Sheldon want to watch The Muppets?


**Apologies if this is slightly rushed, as apparently the owner of my laptop, AKA me, does not get to go on it unless I get given permission. What.**

* * *

'Can I choose the film this time?' Penny asked. Leonard looked surprised, but nodded. Sheldon, on the other hand, was looking at her with horror.

'Oh, no. If the film is _Love, Actually_ again, count me out,' he drawled. 'I don't care if you think Hugh Grant is a good dancer, the film is still a ridiculous waste of time.'

Penny looked cross. 'No, actually. I was thinking we could watch _The Muppets_. Everyone says that's good. And it's supposed to have a cameo from Neil Patrick Harris in!' she added happily.

Raj, Leonard and Howard all murmured in agreement. Bernadette smiled, and then looked at Sheldon. But to her surprise, he looked almost worried.

'You want to watch _The Muppets_?' he said, and then realised he was stating the obvious.

Darn.

'Yeah!' Penny said.

'The 2011 version, correct?' Sheldon asked.

'Of course,' Penny agreed.

'Oh,' Sheldon said, uncharacteristically lost for words. 'No, we can't watch that. Let's watch _Star Wars_ instead.'

Penny pouted. 'I want to watch _The Muppets_. What's the big deal?'

'Um…' Sheldon said, suddenly nervous, still holding the _Star Wars_ DVD in his hand. He fiddled with it, looking awkward all of a sudden. Everyone was looking at him, almost surprised that he wasn't saying anything. 'I…don't like _The Muppets_,' he eventually said, avoiding eye contact.

Penny frowned. This wasn't right. Sheldon was lying – she could tell by the way he was avoiding eye contact. There had to be another reason why he didn't want to see the film. Well, she would find out.

* * *

After much arguing, Leonard sided with Penny and they found a website that had the film on. Using the lead which connected the laptop to the TV, the film flashed on the TV screen and they settled down to watch it.

Except for Sheldon.

He fidgeted, looked away from the TV, and then eventually got up and simply wandered around. When Leonard snapped at him, he reluctantly sat down again. He could tell Amy was giving him a strange look and once asked him what was going on, but he didn't answer.

'Sheldon, are you okay?' Amy asked, with some concern. 'You've been acting strange all evening.'

'I'm fine,' Sheldon lied.

'_Am I a man..._' the puppet on the TV sang in a nasal voice, and then the 'human' version of the puppet came on TV.

And everything happened at once.

Penny choked on her drink and coughed most of it on Leonard, who was staring open-mouthed at the TV and hadn't even noticed; Howard and Bernadette had both frozen; Raj had swallowed his food too quickly and was now hammering on his chest trying to breathe, and Amy was simply staring at the TV, and then Sheldon, and then back again.

Sheldon was on the TV.

S_inging._

With a surprisingly good voice.

The scene switched to a white piano, where he was now playing the piano with someone else. After a minute or so, the song started to come to an end, and then he faded from sight, ending with a wink at the camera.

For a moment or two there was total silence. Everyone turned their heads slowly and looked at Sheldon, who swallowed and looked down.

Penny broke it. 'You were in _The Muppets_?' she exclaimed. 'You didn't want us to watch the film because _you were in it_!'

Sheldon started to go red. 'Well...'

Penny started to laugh, hysterically. 'I can't believe it! Sheldon Cooper was in a film! _Singing_!' Amy started to laugh, and Sheldon threw her an embarrassed glare.

'I'm sorry, Sheldon,' Amy snorted. 'You have to admit, it is sort of funny!' Howard and Raj joined in the laughter. So did Leonard. The only one who didn't laugh was Bernadette, who felt slightly sorry for Sheldon, but even she couldn't stop the smile creeping up on her face.'

* * *

'Hey, Sheldon?'

'What?' Sheldon asked without looking at Leonard, poking his food with a plastic fork. They were all sat at one of the tables in the University, and he was sure they hadn't stopped looking at him all day.

'Are you a man or a muppet?' Leonard asked him.

Raj and Howard cracked up. Sheldon threw a tired glance at his roommate, who had a smirk on his face that he wasn't trying to hide. 'Amusing,' he said, not finding it amusing at all.

'No, he's a _muppet_ of a man,' Howard laughed.

'Or a very manly muppet,' Raj grinned.

After many muppet jokes, Sheldon gave up ignoring them and threw down his fork onto his plate. 'How many more jokes are you going to make about this?' he asked.

'Many, many jokes,' Raj said cheerfully.

'In that case, I shall eat my food in my office for today,' Sheldon said, putting his napkin on the tray and standing up.

'No, don't go,' Leonard said seriously. 'We're sorry. We were just joking.'

Sheldon looked at him carefully, and then sat down again.

Barry Kripke came over to the table. Sheldon watched him with narrowed eyes.

Barry smiled and him, putting a hand on the table. 'Hey, Coopah,' he said, almost pleasantly. 'Have you decided if youwh a man ohw a muppet yet?'

They all laughed again.

Sheldon picked up his tray and, with as much dignity as he could muster, walked out of the room.

_Drat_.

He'd be dealing with the muppet jokes for a long time.

* * *

**And if you haven't seen The Muppets, Jim certainly is in it, and I recommend you YouTube '_Jim Parsons - The Muppets_' or you might not understand what the heck I'm going on about! I'm going to leave it up to you all to decide how Sheldon got a part in the film, although my main idea was for Sheldon to get given the wrong directions and end up in the studio where the film was made, but I didn't want it to be too long. Y'know.**

**Thanks for reading!**


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